Margaret Loftus Reid Raffa, whom family and friends called Maggie, was an exceptional woman known for her grace, intellect and generosity. Maggie passed away April 25, 2025, at her home in Red Bank. Her 86th birthday was April 22.
Maggie was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1939, the first of William Joseph and Ann Regina Reid’s three children. Family and friends knew them as Bob and Gene. Four years later, her parents welcomed her brother Tom (Thomas Howard). The family moved to Rumson in 1946, two years before Maggie’s brother Bill (William Joseph Jr.) was born.
Strong ties among her sprawling Irish American family always influenced Maggie’s life. As the only girl in her immediate family, her female cousins on the Loftus side became more like her sisters. She cherished her 17 aunts and uncles and male cousins, as well and, later on, their children.
When the family re-established ties with the Reid and Loftus families in Ireland, many transatlantic visits followed. Everyone from the Loftus and Reid families stayed at Maggie’s house or she stayed at theirs. When cousin Frank Waters arrived from Ireland, she, Tom and Bill took him to an Irish festival in New Jersey. Through Maggie, the American Reids became close to Denise Reid Taylor, who stayed at Maggie’s house while working as a nanny in the U.S. Maggie also stayed in touch with the Reid cousins in Canada and cherished visits with cousins Bob and Mike and their respective wives, Carol and Pat.
From 1946 onward, Maggie lived in the Rumson, Red Bank and Little Silver areas, near the beach in Sea Bright. She attended Holy Cross Elementary School in Rumson and then Red Bank Catholic High School, where she was her class valedictorian in 1956. She went on to graduate from Trinity College in Washington, D.C. in 1960, before returning to Rumson to help her mother with her younger brothers.
She taught fifth grade at Fairview Middle School and fourth grade at New Monmouth Middle School, both in Middletown, for a combined 37 years. She understood how children learn and delighted in helping them open their eyes to the world. She always taught her students “This Land Is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie. She fiercely believed in equality and was unimpressed by wealth.
Maggie did not have biological children, but she adored her brother Tom and sister-in-law Dani’s daughters Jennifer and Nellie, loved taking them to the beach, buying them clothes, always at steep discounts, which she bragged about. Later on, her love extended to their children and her cousins’ children as well.
When her brother Bill and his wife Carol adopted three orphans from Russia, Maggie showered love on Natasha, Anya and Sasha. She was a very important influence in their lives. They had never before had an aunt who loved them.
Maggie took many people under her wing. Entire families, recent immigrants, cousins and younger teachers. She stayed in touch with the Sisters of Mercy who taught her at Holy Cross Elementary School in Rumson and Red Bank Catholic High School. She eventually became an Associate Sister of Mercy.
In 2012, Maggie married Bob Raffa, a former classmate from Red Bank Catholic High School. They enjoyed spending winters in Florida and summers in New Jersey, which allowed them to stay close to friends and family in both states.
Maggie embraced life. She loved playing any and all card games and was a wiz at all of them. As a young adult, she skied with cousin Tom Loftus and Jean Carmichael, whom he later married. She attended the annual Loftus family reunions in New York and Pennsylvania. She stayed in touch with her high school classmates and shared a cabana with her closest friends at the Chapel Beach Club in Sea Bright. She loved taking a chair to the water’s edge and reading a book.
Most of all, Maggie loved her sleep. She often went to bed at 2 or 3 a.m. and stayed there until 11 a.m. the next day. Her sister-in-law Carol called it “being on Maggie time.”
Maggie leaves behind a large group of family and friends whom she made feel special. On her kitchen windowsill above the sink in her New Jersey home, she had a hand-printed card that said, “Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.” In a Florida home that she recently sold, she had a rock painted with the following: “Love with all your heart.” That’s what Maggie did each and every day of her life.
Visitation was held April 30 at the John E. Day Funeral Home, Red Bank. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. May 1 at the Church of the Nativity in Fair Haven. Interment will immediately follow at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Middletown.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Sisters of Mercy by emailing kschiro@sistersofmercy.org.
Please visit Margaret’s memorial website at johnedayfuneralhome.com.
The article originally appeared in the May 8 – 15, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
